Who Needs a Hard Body?

It's almost unheard of in Hollywood to tell an actress to stop working out, much less go for seconds at the catering truck. Yet that's exactly what Matt Weiner, creator of the hit AMC show Mad Men—which is set in the 1960s advertising world—did before filming began. "I did not want them to have sinewy, Spider-Man arms," Weiner explains. "I wanted to see their stomachs, their thighs, their hips. I was interested in presenting women with bodies that fit reality." That came as a welcome change for his actresses, each of whom resorted to different approaches when it came to toning down their figures (see below). And for extra help creating their curves, credit the period costumes, including bullet bras and girdles. "I went from an A-cup to a D," says Anne Dudek, who plays a suburban housewife. "You look at them and you're like, 'Wow! This is a chest!'"

HER NATURAL CURVES
When she was a model, CHRISTINA HENDRICKS says, "I was 20 lbs. lighter, and they were still telling me to lose weight, because I'm just curvy." Now, "it's nice to wear clothes that accentuate [my body]—and honor it!"

WEARS PADDING
Normally a size 4, ELISABETH MOSS dons butt padding to take her to a shapelier size 6. "I'm glad I didn't have to actually gain the weight—'cause it's always hard to lose it," she says.

EATS WHAT SHE WANTS
"I felt I could eat as many M&Ms as I wanted," says ROSEMARIE DEWITT, who also stopped doing yoga. "My character [a beatnik artist] doesn't seem very concerned about sucking it in!"

STOPPED EXERCISING
For most jobs "I'll try to exercise more," says JANUARY JONES, by hiking, playing tennis and doing yoga. "But for this role, I didn't do any physical activity—I didn't have to!"